I find myself learning how to do various processes in maths, but not actually knowing what use it has. Does anyone else feel the same? If so how do you deal with it, do you try and find out what the methods can be used for?
OR is there any material you'd recommend which involves why the concepts are important and not just the process/methods.

(Original post by ᒍack)
I find myself learning how to do various processes in maths, but not actually knowing what use it has. Does anyone else feel the same? If so how do you deal with it, do you try and find out what the methods can be used for?
OR is there any material you'd recommend which involves why the concepts are important and not just the process/methods.

Try watching youtube videos on their applications of how they're used. Recent one I watched was matrices and eigenvectors, I had no clue what I was learning lol

(Original post by ᒍack)
I find myself learning how to do various processes in maths, but not actually knowing what use it has. Does anyone else feel the same? If so how do you deal with it, do you try and find out what the methods can be used for?
OR is there any material you'd recommend which involves why the concepts are important and not just the process/methods.

Just accept it and learn for the exam if you're not planning to do a maths/engineering degree. No point wasting valuable time!

The sad reality of exam-based education systems (although it's the best we have).

(Original post by Eulogy)
I disagree tbqhfam
If you wanted to learn in that style, that's what BTEC Applied maths is for

Spoiler:

Show

I went there

Maybe you misunderstood. The point i'm trying to get across is: you learn calculus for example and all these methods involved with it, but you're not taught where the processes can be applied and what they specifically help you do, pretty much rendering the knowledge pointless.

(Original post by ᒍack)
Maybe you misunderstood. The point i'm trying to get across is: you learn calculus for example and all these methods involved with it, but you're not taught where the processes can be applied and what they specifically help you do, pretty much rendering the knowledge pointless.

I understood.
If you wanted that you take applied maths. Hence the name "applied". They show you where to apply the maths".
You don't take Biology A Level because one day a mugger's gonna come up to you and force you to recite the Krebs cycle or you get stabbed.

(Original post by Eulogy)
I understood.
If you wanted that you take applied maths. Hence the name "applied". They show you where to apply the maths".
You don't take Biology A Level because one day a mugger's gonna come up to you and force you to recite the Krebs cycle or you get stabbed.

Thank you for making yourself look extremely simple-minded.
Your ignorance on the point is laughable but concerning at the same time.

(Original post by Eulogy)
I understood.
If you wanted that you take applied maths. Hence the name "applied". They show you where to apply the maths".
You don't take Biology A Level because one day a mugger's gonna come up to you and force you to recite the Krebs cycle or you get stabbed.

Also I'd say biology is relatively good in comparison with maths in terms of understanding the purpose. For example when you learn about mutations in a genes that codes for a proteins, you don't just learn: The order of bases change, you learn about how the ordering of the bases then affect the amino acid that is created and that in turn can completely affect the protein made, as well as its structure which can then also affect its functionality.

With maths it's more like, learn this method, when you see this do this, don't ask why it's just what you do.

(Original post by ᒍack)
Yes I understand that, however to do so I had to go off-course from the material endorsed by the exam board to learn it myself from places like the Khan academy.

Edexcel Old Spec Maths A Level, Mechanics 2, Section 1:
Velocity and acceleration when the displacement is a function of time.
The setting up and solution of equations of the form dx/dt = f(t) or dv/dt = g(t) will be consistent with the level of calculus in C2.

(Original post by ᒍack)
Also I'd say biology is relatively good in comparison with maths in terms of understanding the purpose. For example when you learn about mutations in a genes that codes for a proteins, you don't just learn: The order of bases change, you learn about how the ordering of the bases then affect the amino acid that is created and that in turn can completely affect the protein made, as well as its structure which can then also affect its functionality.

With maths it's more like, learn this method, when you see this do this, don't ask why it's just what you do.

Trying to compare Biology with maths (especially in the way you've done) makes no sense. You're learning/learnt things that way, but they don't have to be. Maybe your teachers aren't great. You can always ask your teacher, why do you we use this method, or how does this method work. You used to be able to get away with learning stuff that way, but now they're changing the maths spec.

In general, in the core/pure units, you learn the concepts, and then you can choose to take the applied units where they're applied. Unfortunately you have the learn the actual concepts first, independent of how they're applied, before you can learn how they're applied.

(Original post by Eulogy)
I understood.
If you wanted that you take applied maths. Hence the name "applied". They show you where to apply the maths".
You don't take Biology A Level because one day a mugger's gonna come up to you and force you to recite the Krebs cycle or you get stabbed.

PRSOM

Maths (assuming you mean pure maths and not stats etc., which has some pretty obvious "real world" applications) isn't about immediately applicable facts concerning concrete entities. I'd say the intrinsic beauty of it makes it interesting and worth studying, but since that isn't so easy to see in school maths, there are always transferable skills.

(Original post by Eulogy)
Trying to compare Biology with maths (especially in the way you've done) makes no sense. You're learning/learnt things that way, but they don't have to be. Maybe your teachers aren't great. You can always ask your teacher, why do you we use this method, or how does this method work..

Yeah so this is what we were getting at, knowing about its uses is considered time wasted because you're barely marked on it. So it's just more efficient to learn the processes to answer the questions.

However when it comes down to pursuing a subject like physics, it would've been much more beneficial if you learnt what practical uses the processes have.

The current system is not very dependent on why it's important and what practical use it holds. So if someone wants to further study subjects like physics, they'd have to learn the practical uses of the processes in there own time, and it wouldn't necessarily affect their grade. (their grade in their current level of study)

(Original post by ᒍack)
Yeah so this is what we were getting at, knowing about its uses is considered time wasted because you're barely marked on it. So it's just more efficient to learn the processes to answer the questions.

However when it comes down to pursuing a subject like physics, it would've been much more beneficial if you learnt why the processes are useful and where you can use them to help calculate different variables.

The current system is not very dependent on why it's important and what practical use it holds. So if someone wants to further study subjects like physics, they'd have to learn the practical uses of the processes in there own time, and it wouldn't necessarily affect their grade.